Dr. Victor Chukwuemeka, (Ph.D European Economics)

​​Victor Chukwuemeka is an investment banker, economist, thinker, researcher and writer who holds a doctorate degree in European Economics. He was educated at Haileybury, attending both the prep and senior schools. He gained his first degree from the University of London with a B.Sc in Economics in 1993 and immediately joined an investment bank in the Foreign Exchange group as a market maker. He later became an investment banking consultant overseeing various fall-outs, notably Lehman Brothers, and consulted over various takeovers between banking institutions. Several years later, he embarked on a long standing ambition to research the notion of monetary and fiscal union in Europe and the convergence criteria, and began a doctorate degree in Economics, studying the Optimum Currency Area (OCA) Theory Criteria and the process of endogenous convergence.​His results strengthened his early 1990′s beliefs which have now unfortunately become a significant reality in that negative economic shocks in a currency union are much longer lasting, potentially as long as a generation, and the impact of these shocks are significantly stronger, rendering that union’s structure rigid and inflexible in the absence of autonomous policy. Indeed the completion of convergence is still ongoing and Victor deliberates with the European Commission on various aspects of their work, particularly their ambitions for convergence completion. He defended his thesis and graduated with a Ph.D in 2013.

Following on from the Brexit vote, and wishing to maintain a business interest in European Economics, Victor formed the OIER. One of the first bespoke consultancies of its kind, Victor seeks to establish firm relationships with business leaders in all things EU related, and form a strong association between the business and academic world. By doing this, the intention is to eliminate bias and subjectivity in all things Economics, and provide a stronger base for calculation with the application of new methods and metrics - a necessity for the challenges for Economists in the new economic landscape.

Victor is involved with the Young Scholar’s Initiative (YSI), a body representing the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) in collaboration with Oxford University, where he contributes to new ideas for research. Currently, he frequently writes articles on current issues in Economics for think tanks, for example, the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) and also investment magazines.

Aside from the academic and business world, his interests include various sports including his involvement in rugby union as a professional coach with Wasps on the Junior Academy section, and at Harrow School where he coaches rugby and track and field athletics, training athletes for progression into the county and England Schools Athletics Championships - all on a part time or voluntary basis. He has been involved in teaching Ph.D students towards the completion of their studies and has published economic journals, mostly on the European Economics.